<p>Hi. We visited Amherst this summer, and while we loved the campus, we were a little surprised that there was only one dining room on campus.</p>
<p>Does that present any problems? Are there ample options for vegetarians?</p>
<p>IMHO, Val is Amherst's biggest downside. The big thing about one dining hall is that it's got very limited hours and gets INSANELY crowded at some times of the day. While the food there isn't awful per se, the fact that Val is the only choice means the food gets incredibly repetitive. Not to mention their obsession with chicken! I once counted 13 unique chicken sandwiches (although many were repeated several times) in the course of a month. Eating vegetarian is easy to do, but the choices are even more repetitive, and 70% of the time the dining hall smells like meat anyways, which could turn you off eating altogether. </p>
<p>My biggest beef with Val, though, was their produce. Your options are usually unripe bananas, grainy apples, and bitter oranges, or the standard fruit salad, in which everything tastes like pineapple. Every once in a while they'll have a basket of plums or something. Their vegetables are equally limited--there isn't really anything munchable except celery, although they did have carrot spears on some occasions. No baby carrots though, which are a staple at all my friends' schools! </p>
<p>They do, however, have a large selection of cereals available all day.</p>
<p>One big advantage of having one dining hall is that whenever you go, you can always find someone you know to sit with. If you're studying by yourself or your in the library around dinner time and you just show up in Val, odds are that some friends of yours will be there.</p>
<p>I agree with katbenc about the food. The food is generally quite decent (especially lunch, which I am a big fan of), but the menu is somewhat limited. There's about a three week cycle of menus that can get old after a while. 13 unique chicken sandwiches is not an exaggeration. The produce is generally not that good; although it's locally grown, if that is important to you. On the plus side, there are enough available ingredients that you can concoct a meal for yourself that is quite good with a little creativity.They've also recently installed a make-your-own stir fry station and made the waffle irons available all day, both of which have provided good fallback options. (Word to the wise: waffle + frozen yogurt = delicious).</p>
<p>All in all, I would rate the food a C, which feels pretty bad in comparison with everything else that Amherst does very well.</p>
<p>One dinning hall is okay...you always know where to meet for lunch, and I don't usually get stuck in lines. Buuut, the food sucks. The employees are nice, but they need some direction b/c they're not exactly born to be chefs. Their attempts to be creative are... disastrous.</p>
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On the plus side, there are enough available ingredients that you can concoct a meal for yourself that is quite good with a little creativity.
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<p>Try buying a used paperback copy of "Tray Gourmet." It gives recipes based upon what you can pick up from a typical cafeteria, take it back to your dorm or find a microwave, and rearrange the ingredients into something else. </p>
<p>For example, pick up an apple, some cheddar cheese squares and raisins, core the apple and fill with the cheese and raisins. Microwave. Instant apple pie.</p>
<p>Some very clever Yale students wrote it a few years ago. It's an approach.</p>